Curious Non-Lethal Job Killing

Whether it’s the EPA, taxes, worker pay or (horrors!) Obamacare, the adjective associated with the looming disaster is always the same: Job-Killing. The unanimity of anti-Obama politicians in the use of “job killing” may have originated with John McCain in 2008 as he was preparing to contest Obama for the presidency. In a leaked McCain campaign memo , the team urged McCain and his acolytes to portray Obama as a “job killing machine.” Clearly, the idea took root.

Mitch McConnell (June 2012): “The biggest threat to farmers in Kentucky and across America are this administration’s job-killing regulations”

John Boehner (July 2010): “I hope President Obama will reconsider his support for these job-killing tax hikes.”

Richard Hudson (October 2015): Congressman from NC on ozone regulations, “Shame on President Obama for trying to put folks in our community out of work with this job-killing regulation.”

James Inhofe (January 2014): “The President likes to proclaim he supports an all-of-the-above energy strategy when he tours the country, yet when he returns to Washington he hides behind his Environmental Protection Agency that is implementing costly, job-killing regulations.”

Rick Perry (June 2015): “President Obama’s overtime-pay mandate is filled with job-killing incentives that will drastically increase the cost of hiring new workers.”

Uncannily consistent on placing the administration in the same circle with ISIS in their fixation on killing, yet the Cassandras seem to have peered into a cracked crystal ball. Reports out today paint a fairy upbeat story on jobs and their creation.

In fact, the job killing actions have had little deleterious effect for years. The job report from October notes, “businesses have now added 13.5 million jobs over 68 straight months, extending the longest streak on record.”

Imagine how great things would be if the government stopped trying to kill jobs.

Did she say “Boy Crowder”?

In my novel “Architect’s Rendition” published in 2009 I introduced an imbecilic minor character named Boy Crowder who unintentionally distracts law enforcement away from a murderous sniper by committing a copycat shooting the next day.

From the novel:
“No law enforcement official in New York or New Jersey for a moment suspected Tom Stull was the ‘crazed’ sniper who killed two people and shot up a bunch of vehicles along I80, for the simple reason that a nineteen-year-old hick named Beauregard “Boy”
Crowder – the copycat sniper who shot out the tires of a bus transporting elderly ladies to Atlantic City the day after Morcilla was killed – was caught and subsequently took credit for all the mayhem. People who knew Boy Crowder thought of him as something of a nitwit and questioned whether he had the skills necessary to shoot targets so precisely as they moved along at highway speeds. But the New Jersey State Police, having failed to stop a second round of shooting in as many days were eager to perp-walk the fool and close the case.”

Earlier this week as I prepared dinner, I listened to NPR’s Kelly McEvers interview actor Walton Goggins, one member of the ensemble cast in Quentin Tarrantino’s new movie, “The Hateful Eight.” Goggins talked bit about his character, Chris Mannix, the new sheriff of Red Rock, then discussed how his southern accent affected his ability to get roles. He bemoaned the fact that his hick accent boxed him into roles as racists and stupid people, concluding “eventually over time, you know, you hope that you earn the right through your work to actually be able to articulate a point of view about where you come from, and that’s been my journey.”

Evers segued into Goggins’s work before “The Hateful Eight,” noting “that journey has included playing the character Shane Vendrell, the corrupt cop from the FX show “The Shield,” a slave owner in “Django Unchained” and perhaps the most complicated of his bad Southerner roles, Boyd Crowder from another FX show, “Justified.”” (“Justified” premiered in March 2010.)

Did she just say “Boy Crowder?” I had to put down the knife and concentrate. Further conversation confirmed the character’s name is Boyd not Boy – but still…. Coincidence?

Could the writers of “Justified” have read “Architect’s Rendition” and found my character’s name irresistibly southern-fried hick?

Nah.

(Sidebar: If you see “The Hateful Eight,” ask yourself why the bounty hunter John Ruth never once states the reason why his charge, Daisy Domergue, has a $10,000 price on her head (this is 1870s, so really big money). If he ever once mentioned what she was notorious for the movie would end there, for all the subsequent intrigue and mayhem would be unnecessary. Unless he doesn’t know – which seems highly unlikely given the breadth of his experience bringing in wanted men. Nevertheless, an extremely entertaining film.)